The Top of the Hill

Cracks Hill is probably not a household name for most people. I remember it as an out of bounds place where trespassers get prosecuted.

‘Situated between the villages of Crick and Yelvertoft, near bridge 14 of the Leicester Line of the Grand Union Canal, Cracks Hill offers fantastic panoramic views of north Northamptonshire, Crick and the surrounding area.’

I never knew the bridges along the canal had numbers. I remember walking along the canal path. One year, Biology homework compelled a friend and I to search out different ways plants launched seeds into the world. I remember particularly that the friend's final report had sliced apples in it, complete with pips.

I always imagined that there was a fantastic panoramic view at Cracks Hill. Being an imaginative child, I also imagined there was a gamekeeper with a gun hiding behind a tree with a trigger-happy finger who was just itching for someone to climb over the fence.

I have seen bigger hills since that didn’t tell me I would be prosecuted if I climbed them. And I have climbed them.

Times change.

‘The Council was given stewardship of Cracks Hill in 1999 and manages the site in partnership with the Friends of Cracks Hill. Crick Millennium Wood Pocket Park, the Jubilee Wood and the canal towpath are all nearby. A beacon sits atop the hill along with a plaque explaining the history of the hill and the directions of points of interest.’

I feel robbed somehow. There was no plaque in my day and no opportunity to look for ‘evidence of a large pre-Roman Iron Age settlement…found in the area.’ I looked for seeds one summer when there were more interesting things to look for on the hill.

Exodus 19 features not a hill, but a mountain, Mount Sinai.

There was no gamekeeper hiding behind the tree taking pot shots at the uninvited heading for the summit.

‘Put limits for the people around the mountain and tell them, ‘Be careful that you do not approach the mountain or touch the foot of it. Whoever touches the mountain is to be put to death. They are to be stoned or shot with arrows; not a hand is to be laid on them. No person or animal shall be permitted to live.’ Only when the ram’s horn sounds a long blast may they approach the mountain.”’ Exodus 19:12-13

There is something almost heartening that down at the bottom of the mountain there were someone people who would ‘force their way through to see the Lord’. They were people whose parents had fed them stories about God and the encounters with their ancestors. They had been weaned on promises. And God was so close. They had no idea yet of the holiness of God that could not tolerate sin.

I think too that there must have been somewhere in among the thunder and the trumpets the sound of a heart breaking. It was always God’s plan to dwell with His people – but not yet, not without the tabernacle and not without all the safety precautions in place.

The other day I was crossing the playing field at the back of the house heading for the far corner and the path the other side of the fence. There was a dog. I don’t know dog breeds. Is there a Benji breed? Small, wild haired, full of character? There was one of them at the far side of the field. I thought for a moment the owner had thrown a ball, but no. The dog had spotted me and was determined to make me his new best friend. He hurled himself across the field with one single desire – to reach me. He landed at my feet and turned belly-up for a tummy rub. It was a wonderful moment. I had a slow-motion picture running in my head.

Cracks Hill was denied to me. Mount Sinai was denied to the some that really wanted to see God. Cracks Hill is no longer denied to me and now, because of Jesus, I have access into the presence of God. I am not going to be stoned or shot with arrows.

Such freedom. I want to be like the dog in the field, hurling my way towards a best friend. One single desire.